Sun Microsystems Talks iPhone Java with Engadget

by Eric March on May 3, 2008 at 6:54 pm

The two biggest questions about the iPhone (apart from the myriad 3G rumours) are Flash and Java. There has been no question that the “full internet” experience of the iPhone, while being the best of any mobile device, is still significantly lacking without support for the two biggest web-centric languages, and the question has been hanging in the air since last June. So far there have been no solid answers, even though Sun Microsystems and Adobe have both repeatedly stated that they want to see their respective products supported.

There is no doubt that they are both working on it, whatever Apple says, and we all hope that they will be able to present a finished product that Apple simply can’t say no to. In the mean time however, Engadge’s Ryan Block got the opportunity to interview Sun Microsystems CEO Johnathan Schwartz

I think the only difficulty will be what Apple presents through its EULA. But I think that I think EULA is a bit of an oxymoron to me. They’re end users, they have the freedom to choose what they’d like to do, so I think we are going to leave it up to users to decide how they want to use the technology. Certainly Google with Gmail, Yahoo with Yahoo Go, you know, there are just tens of thousands for applications are already built to the Java platform. If consumers want to run them on their devices of whatever their choosing its up to them.

While here still aren’t any answers, it’s an interesting read and does at least let us know that Sun have redoubled their efforts to bring one of the most important web development frameworks to the iPhone. As always, all we can really do is wait and see. Sun is doing what they do best, and ultimately, the ball will be in The Steve’s court. However, there is significant demand for both Flash and Java, and I can’t help but think that eventually Apple is going to have to do something. Chances are we probably will see both Java and Flash supported on the iPhone and Touch. It’s really just a question of when.

(Source: Engadget Mobile)